Los Altos’ Dale Ziola (East) and San Gabriel’s Jude Oliva (West) have been selected as the head coaches for the 2011 National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame All-Star Game to be played June 22 at West Covina High School.

The organization also announced that it will resume with scholar athlete awards dinner at Brookside Country Club in Pasadena on Mar. 27. The awards dinner has not happened the past two one years following the death of former San Gabriel Valley chapter president Jim Brownfield.

New San Gabriel Valley chapter president Tony Ortega and vice president/game organizer Leon Ward have worked hard to resume with the awards dinner and have pulled it off. Nominations to area football coaches have been sent out and the Hall of Fame committee will honor around 25 players at the dinner.

Coaches and athletic directors are urged to nominate any football players with a 3.0 or higher grade-point average that feel is deserving.

This year’s all-star game has been moved up a week due to the earlier start to next football season under the new CIF schedule.

Oliva led San Gabriel to a 9-5 record, the Almont League championship and a runner-up finish in the Mid-Valley Division.

Ziola turned around Los Altos’ program in his first season by taking a program that went 0-10 in 2010 to the second round of the Southeast Division playoffs. Los Altos finished 8-4.
Aram’s take: Great choices. Oliva and Ziola certainly turned in amazing seasons and both figure to approach this June’s game with their trademark fire. Also good to see the awards dinner back on. The Hall of Fame has always done a great job honoring our local football scene.

UPDATED: Tell me this is a joke. Tell me it cannot be true that a team that just gave up 84 points in the Southeast Division championship against West Covina has put Westlake and Corona Centennial Norco on next year’s nonleague schedule.

BY THE WAY: A commenter named “Steely Don” on Stevie R.’s blog had the comment of the young year so far about this item …

Steely Don said:

It’s the STADIUM, guys: after seeing what an awesome experience everyone had at the championship game, those D-1 teams are LINING UP for the chance to play on Hawes St.

Covina quarterback Billy Livingston has filed his application to attend Cal-Lutheran and play quarterback for the Kingsmen.

Livingston took his official visit to Cal-Lutheran last week and roomed with former Monrovia standout QB Nick Bueno, who is now a receiver at Cal-Lu. Livingston liked what he saw and heard and decided to give it a go.

Cal-Lu was ranked No. 8 in the nation in D-3 last year. The school does not offer athletic scholarships, but through grants and aid, they can make it very doable for their athletes.

Aram’s take: Congrats to The Kid. He will have to compete with two seniors this coming season, but after that, he could become the man.

Tribune Offensive Player of the Year Travis Santiago signed with APU on Friday.

The Charter Oak quarterback is going to also play baseball for the Cougars. Santiago threw for 3,251 yards and 27 touchdowns. He also ran for 552 yards and 11 scores.

Aram’s take: Atta boy, Travis! Now we’re talking! Get me Rivera to APU and I will be on Clound Nine. Anyway, Santiago playing in the SGV’s backyard is going to be a treat. I’ve got a feeling he’s going to do some serious damage at APU.

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